AIRCREW ASSOCIATION ARCHIVE TRUST

Registered Charity Number 1087354

Message from:
Air Commodore Jack Broughton OBE DL
Chairman of Trustees

4 September 2011

As our treasured AirCrew Association passes into history I am mindful of the many occasions in the past 34 years that members have met to celebrate their comradeship of a unique organisation. As far as I am concerned the existence of the ACA will remain a living memory and I shall continue to refer to the local branch and the Archive Trust as belonging to the ACA, similarly I shall continue to consider myself an ACA member.

Of course we all will miss INTERCOM presented so well over the years by enthusiastic editors all of whom brought a special touch to their duties. Similarly we will remember with grateful thanks all those who served on the Council giving freely of their time and who in many cases served beyond the call of duty. However as our attention turns to the future I hope that sufficient chaps will volunteer to keep in touch with other members and branches through the conduit of the website. But this can only happen if sufficient members participate by regularly using the website and contributing information on their activities and interests. So members its up to you either use it or lose it.

With effect from the 1st September 2011, responsibility for the content and upkeep of  The AirCrew Association (ACA) website passed to the Trustees of the ACA Archive Trust. In turn we have been fortunate to obtain the services of a volunteer who has agreed to assume the mantle of webmaster and his name is David Jackson who is a member of the Woking Branch of the Association and remains responsible for that branches input to the website. No doubt it will take time for all the changes necessary to continue running the site to be implemented but in the meantime former members of the now defunct ACA should carry on regardless (a well known aircrew ethos!).

The most important thing for now however is to ensure all those who paid their subscriptions to the ACA by Bankers Order take the initiative to cancel the orders through their bank; nobody can do this for you and if the money is removed from your account it will be lost for all time because there is nowhere for it to go as the ACA Bank Account will have ceased to function.

In the meantime the A3T Trustees have arranged their AGM for later in September at the Yorkshire Air Museum where we expect to make a formal start on the arrangements for erecting a new building at the former RAF Elvington to house the ACA Archive. Much detailed work has been done developing the ACA Archive in the past 2 years and it should soon be in a suitable state to permit access to researchers. Finally I hope to be able to report progress on this important project to ACA members and will update you in regular columns on this medium. In the meantime please feel free to use the “aircrew.org.uk” website as often as you feel able.

Yours aye

Jack B

15, Wilmcote Grove, Southport PR8 2SP
email